Fireflies
by evilRevan
Summary: Every year during Summer Selphia holds a Firefly festival, a time for couples and families to relax and enjoy thousands of fireflies light up the night sky. This year, for the first time in six years, Leon and Frey are able to go out together and enjoy the event along with everyone else.


Thousands upon thousands of fireflies lit up the night, their lights dancing around the villagers of Selphia without a care in the world. Families and friends gathered together in town square to watch, their eyes following the blinking lights with a smile upon their faces as the tiny insects fluttered around.

With nearly the entire town watching the summer festival from the center of town barely anyone ventured to the Dragon Lake outside of town, the place where the most fireflies gathered. Completely focused on the tiny flashing lights no one noticed two people slip away from the group, silently making their way through the empty town and towards the forgotten Dragon Lake.

A cool summer breeze greeted the couple when they arrived at their destination, the lake filled to the brim with the reflections of thousands, if not millions, of fireflies happily flying around trying to attract mates.

A green haired woman reached out with a gloved hand to catch one. The firefly flew between her fingers, escaping the cage and continuing to flutter about. A small frown appeared on the woman's face shortly after.

A man's voice chuckled beside her. "Enjoying yourself, Frey?"

Green eyes looked to the side. To the woman's left was a man with big fluffy light blue ears and a tail, which wasn't the norm in Selphia. Neither was his attire and teal markings upon his face. Anyone visiting Selphia would no doubt question where the man came from simply because of his appearance, but the woman beside him didn't mind. They had been married for at least five-six years already. She had grown used to it.

Frey shifted her gaze back towards the fireflies dancing above the water's surface. "How about you, Leon?" She smiled, poking him in the side playfully like she always did.

In the darkness Frey saw a rather amused smirk appear on her husband's face, one he constantly wore whenever he messed with someone.

Abruptly his peacock fan folded together with a snap, making it so he was only holding onto what looked like a single peacock feather rather than a large, cumbersome fan.

Frey saw him place his hand on her head just before he decided to ruffle up her hair.

"Hey!" She squeaked and attempted to swat his hand away. But it was no use. Leon simply ignored her protests and proceeded to make a mess of her neat green hair pulled into two long pigtails.

It took several minutes of loud protesting before he stopped and by then, the top of her head resembled a bird's nest; disheveled and messy. A pout spread across Frey's face, her hands frantically trying to fix her hair. The lights from the fireflies illuminated Leon's oddly satisfied grin in the dark.

"Not funny Leon." The Jackal laughed and opened his fan once again.

"Hm…? I found it oddly soothing. You didn't think I'd let you get away with poking me, did you?" He purred, obviously messing with her as always. Even after being married for so long he hadn't changed a bit.

After several fruitless seconds later, Frey gave up on her hair and stared at her blue haired husband still grinning as if he just won a contest.

The princess closed one eye while keeping the other on him. "You didn't answer my question, Leon." The man's grin faded, quickly replaced by a deep frown. This sparked concern deep inside the young woman.

"Leon?" She called out, gently poking him in the side when he didn't respond right away. A pair of bright blue eyes glowing in the dark fell upon her after a minute had gone by in silence. "I hate to admit it… but… I feel excited, just looking at all of them." He finally answered, much to Frey's delight.

She smiled ear to ear causing the older man to give her a puzzled look. "What?" His cheeks felt warm when she kept on staring at him with her beautiful, bright smile lighting up her face. Frey didn't respond and simply decided to walk away from him, humming softly in the background. In silence Leon watched from the sidelines as Frey searched for the nearest firefly to catch. Her gloved hands reached out several times to nab one, two, three, and then four, without success. But she kept on trying, wanting to see the bugs up close and to see them glow from within her hands.

One firefly flew in front of her face, moving fast enough to evade her fingers closing in on it. Frey huffed in defeat as this was now the fifth one to escape from her so far.

"What exactly are you doing?" Frey let loose a startled squeak when she felt something prod her in the side, Leon's fan the culprit. Flustered, red faced, and pouting she whirled around to face Leon.

"I am trying to catch a firefly." Leon's eyes lit up for some strange reason.

"Why?"

"I've never seen one up close. We were always busy today to ever come see the firefly festival, remember?" She pointed out to him, remembering the reason why they hadn't. Five years ago Luna entered their lives and they became so busy caring for her that the past five years they hadn't been able to take the time to go out and enjoy this festival. Luna wasn't demanding like other babies, but they were first time parents with almost no knowledge as to how to care for children. Now Luna was old enough not to get herself into trouble. But as a safety precaution, Margaret volunteered to watch her while they went off to enjoy themselves.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two, Leon's expression one of deep thought. And without warning, he walked away from her, his blue tail gently wagging behind. Frey felt confused when he left, unaware of what he was doing let alone why he moved away to the other side of the lake. He kept his back to her, hiding whatever he was doing from her.

Worried she called his name, "Leon." At first she thought he hadn't heard her but the flick of his tail told her otherwise. So, trusting Leon, she waited for him to finish whatever he was doing. Surprisingly it didn't take long before he was walking back towards her, his left hand closed.

He held out his hand without any explanation at all. "Hold out your hands." She cupped her two hands together as Leon placed something in them.

When he withdrew his hand a small firefly laid in the middle, glowing a bright yellow as it rested in Frey's palms. The firefly's bright yellow light illuminated Frey's face, allowing Leon to see her thrilled expression clear as day. It was as if she was a child who had just received some sweets. Frey watched the tiny black bug crawl over her fingers, the end of the bug lighting up as I prepped for takeoff. One translucent wing popped out from the carapace, then a second one. The pair of wings flapped once, and then, the bug was back in the air without too much difficultly.

"Happy now?" Leon asked her out of the blue. Frey looked up at him to see his fan shielding his mouth from her. She wasn't sure if he was quietly laughing to himself over how silly she was or if he was frowning. She didn't care. She just nodded before embracing him in the silence.

Leon tensed up, completely caught off-guard by his wife. "Wha-"Frey buried her head against his chest, cutting him off without a word. And instead of questioning the current situation, Leon let out a sigh and embraced her in return. Frey felt his head rest upon her's as the fireflies weaved around them in the darkness.

It was in the darkness she said, "Thank you, Leon." She heard a deep rumble come from deep within his chest, a chuckle escaping his throat.

"Couldn't help it when you looked like a sad puppy." He teased, holding her tighter as Frey's face began to warm up.

The princess opened her mouth to sound her displeasure, but Leon cut her off. "I won't deny your cute smiling face made me want to hug and kiss you." The shade of red on Frey's face deepened to something similar to a burning fire.

For a few minutes they remained like this, embracing one another under the cover of darkness with tiny lights flying around them, before eventually, they withdrew from one another. Around eleven at night Margaret led Luna, Frey and Leon's daughter, through the empty streets of Selphia towards the dragon lake where her parents were. And when they finally arrived, the two girls smiled when they spied Leon sitting by the lake, with Frey fast asleep in his lap. Almost immediately Luna questioned her father as to why he looked so stiff. Leon replied, he hadn't moved in the past hour since she dozed off.


End file.
